-
Nihon Eiseigaku Zasshi. Japanese... 2018The factors contributing to the declining birthrate in Japan include the declining marriage rate, an increase in the average age of those getting married, economic... (Review)
Review
The factors contributing to the declining birthrate in Japan include the declining marriage rate, an increase in the average age of those getting married, economic burden, childcare burden, later child-bearing, and infertility. There is a gender difference in role division, with 70% of unmarried people live with their parents and continue to work while leaving the household chores to their mothers. The loss of these housekeeping services and the increase in the number of irregular workers are factors contributing to the declining marriage rate and the increase in the average age of those getting married. The expansion of the family support policy in Japan from the male breadwinner model to the earner-career model may have been delayed, but it is expected to provide economic benefits as well as actual childcare service benefits in order to reduce the economic and physical burden of childcare for married couples. It is also necessary to provide education in reproductive health to both men and women in schools and workplaces regarding late child-bearing and infertility. Furthermore, it is necessary to evaluate the cost-effectiveness analysis of improvements in fertility and disclose the relevant information in addition to sharing information on medical technology related to pregnancy/childbirth and treatment of diseases. It is urgent to prepare society for natural and healthy pregnancies/childbirths during optimal child-bearing years.
Topics: Adult; Age Factors; Birth Rate; Child; Child Care; Female; Gender Identity; Health Education; Humans; Income; Infertility; Japan; Male; Marriage; Middle Aged; Population Dynamics; Reproductive Health; Social Support; Socioeconomic Factors; Young Adult
PubMed: 30270298
DOI: 10.1265/jjh.73.305 -
Archives of Women's Mental Health Apr 2020Researchers agree that early marriage (EM) and adolescent pregnancy (AP) can form severe risks for women's somatic, mental, and reproductive health, as well as on...
Researchers agree that early marriage (EM) and adolescent pregnancy (AP) can form severe risks for women's somatic, mental, and reproductive health, as well as on educational and social status. Yet, less is known about factors that may moderate or mediate these associations. This study examined, first, retrospectively the impacts of EM and AP on self-reported mental and somatic health among multicultural group of women living in Eastern Anatolia, Turkey. Second task was to analyze whether and how the partner violence would mediate and/or moderate between EM and AP and mental health problems. The participants were 1569 women (16-72 years of age), who reported their age of being married, first pregnancy, and demographic characteristics. They described their mental health status through General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28: depressive, anxiety, social dysfunction, and somatization symptoms) and symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD; DSM-5). Women's reports of somatic illnesses were classified according to WHO-ICD-10. The revised conflict tactics scale, short form was used as a proxy to partner violence. Women who gave birth at 13-19 years of age reported more anxiety and somatization symptoms than later delivered, and those married younger than 25 showed a higher level of depressive symptoms than later married. Both AP and EM formed a heightened risk for somatic illnesses. The partner violence functioned as a moderator; AP was associated with especially high levels of depressive and anxiety symptoms among women exposed to sexual coercion in their marriage. Non-significant mediation analysis indicates that partner violence did not explain the severe impacts of the AP and EM on women's mental health. Yet, the AP and EM were associated with heightened level of partner violence. Adolescent pregnancy forms a comprehensive mental health risk, and both AP and EM were risks for somatic illnesses, such as cardiovascular problems. The mental health risk of AP further intensified if women experienced sexual coercion in their partnership. Our fundamental work is to abolish these patriarchal phenomena.
Topics: Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Female; Humans; Marriage; Mental Disorders; Middle Aged; Pregnancy; Pregnancy in Adolescence; Retrospective Studies; Risk Factors; Sex Offenses; Spouse Abuse; Surveys and Questionnaires; Turkey; Women's Health; Young Adult
PubMed: 30955087
DOI: 10.1007/s00737-019-00960-w -
Annual Review of Psychology Jan 2021The ways that couples form and manage their intimate relationships at higher and lower levels of socioeconomic status (SES) have been diverging steadily over the past... (Review)
Review
The ways that couples form and manage their intimate relationships at higher and lower levels of socioeconomic status (SES) have been diverging steadily over the past several decades. At higher SES levels, couples postpone marriage and childbirth to invest in education and careers, but they eventually marry at high rates and have relatively low risk for divorce. At lower SES levels, couples are more likely to cohabit and give birth prior to marriage and less likely to marry at all. This review examines how SES comes to be associated with the formation, development, and dissolution of intimate relationships. Overall, research has highlighted how a couple's socioeconomic context facilitates some choices and constrains others, resulting in different capacities for relationship maintenance and different adaptive mating strategies for more and less advantaged couples. A generalizable relationship science requires research that acknowledges these differences and one that recruits, describes, and attends to socioeconomic diversity across couples.
Topics: Divorce; Educational Status; Female; Humans; Interpersonal Relations; Male; Marriage; Sexual Behavior; Sexual Partners; Social Class; Spouses
PubMed: 32886585
DOI: 10.1146/annurev-psych-051920-013658 -
Proceedings of the National Academy of... Aug 2022Marital attachment plays an important role in maintaining intimate personal relationships and sustaining psychological well-being. Mate-selection theories suggest that...
Marital attachment plays an important role in maintaining intimate personal relationships and sustaining psychological well-being. Mate-selection theories suggest that people are more likely to marry someone with a similar personality and social status, yet evidence for the association between personality-based couple similarity measures and marital satisfaction has been inconsistent. A more direct and useful approach for understanding fundamental processes underlying marital satisfaction is to probe similarity of dynamic brain responses to maritally and socially relevant communicative cues, which may better reflect how married couples process information in real time and make sense of their mates and themselves. Here, we investigate shared neural representations based on intersubject synchronization (ISS) of brain responses during free viewing of marital life-related, and nonmarital, object-related movies. Compared to randomly selected pairs of couples, married couples showed significantly higher levels of ISS during viewing of marital movies and ISS between married couples predicted higher levels of marital satisfaction. ISS in the default mode network emerged as a strong predictor of marital satisfaction and canonical correlation analysis revealed a specific relation between ISS in this network and shared communication and egalitarian components of martial satisfaction. Our findings demonstrate that brain similarities that reflect real-time mental responses to subjective perceptions, thoughts, and feelings about interpersonal and social interactions are strong predictors of marital satisfaction, reflecting shared values and beliefs. Our study advances foundational knowledge of the neurobiological basis of human pair bonding.
Topics: Brain; Communication; Humans; Interpersonal Relations; Marriage; Personal Satisfaction; Personality; Spouses
PubMed: 35981139
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2202515119 -
The Journal of Adolescent Health :... Mar 2022Although there is a growing evidence base on the drivers of child marriage, comparatively little is known about the experiences of married girls in refugee settings and...
PURPOSE
Although there is a growing evidence base on the drivers of child marriage, comparatively little is known about the experiences of married girls in refugee settings and how their development trajectories diverge from those of their nonmarried peers, particularly in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on cross-national panel data from Bangladesh and Jordan, this article explores diversity in child marriage experiences in contexts affected by forced displacement, highlighting how married girls' well-being differs from that of their unmarried peers, and how COVID-19 has reinforced these differences.
METHODS
We analyzed longitudinal survey data-collected pre- and post-COVID-19-from the Gender and Adolescence: Global Evidence study with 293 ever-married and 1,102 never-married adolescent girls. Multivariate regression analysis assessed the well-being of married and unmarried girls across contexts and refugee status, both prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic. These quantitative data are complemented by in-depth qualitative data from adolescents (n = 112), and key informant interviews with service providers and community leaders (n = 62).
RESULTS
Our findings highlight that married girls in contexts affected by displacement are disadvantaged in multiple ways, but that the patterning of disadvantage varies across contexts, and that marriage can also have protective effects in certain contexts. The COVID-19 pandemic has, however, served to exacerbate existing inequalities in all contexts.
DISCUSSION
Although child marriage prevention efforts remain critical, there is also an urgent need for programming that targets married girls in refugee and host communities to mitigate negative outcomes among this vulnerable group.
Topics: Adolescent; COVID-19; Child; Family Conflict; Female; Humans; Marriage; Pandemics; SARS-CoV-2
PubMed: 35184838
DOI: 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2021.12.001 -
Psychology and Aging Nov 2020Beliefs about aging are grounded in social experience. This study considered the extent to which married older adults' shared beliefs about aging and markers of aging...
Beliefs about aging are grounded in social experience. This study considered the extent to which married older adults' shared beliefs about aging and markers of aging maintain a concurrent and enduring association with their partners' beliefs about and markers of aging. Data from the 2010/2012 and 2014/2016 waves of the Health and Retirement Study provided measures of husbands' and wives' (3,779 couples) positive and negative beliefs about aging and internal (Cystatin C) and external (grip strength) markers of aging at 2 time points. Latent dyadic models parsed beliefs and markers into partners' individual and shared variances, which were connected both cross-sectionally and longitudinally. Longitudinal analysis showed that the cross-sectional associations between shared beliefs and markers of aging were stable over 4 years. Partners' shared beliefs and markers of aging were found to have enduring associations with each other over time. The enduring association between grip strength and future negative beliefs remained significant after accounting for partner selection and similarity in health. Model comparisons across marriage duration and emotional closeness showed partners' beliefs to be more similar in marriages that were either long established or emotionally close. In all groups, shared beliefs and markers of aging were associated with each other over time. The association between positive beliefs and future grip strength was stronger in long-established than in recent marriages. In summary, this study provides evidence that, within older couples, beliefs about aging are shaped in part through experiences of aging together. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).
Topics: Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Aging; Cross-Sectional Studies; Culture; Female; Humans; Longitudinal Studies; Male; Marriage; Middle Aged; Spouses
PubMed: 32525338
DOI: 10.1037/pag0000515 -
International Journal of Environmental... Apr 2022Loneliness has been recognised as a major public health concern in older adults in developed nations, with little focus on low- and middle-income countries such as...
BACKGROUND
Loneliness has been recognised as a major public health concern in older adults in developed nations, with little focus on low- and middle-income countries such as India. While the protective nature of social relationships on loneliness has been explored in the context of marriage, typically these benefits are examined in individual spouses rather than within the marital dyad.
METHODS
A sample of 398 opposite-sex married Indian couples (mean age 54.8 years) was obtained from the pilot wave of the Longitudinal Aging Study in India (LASI) conducted in 2010. These cross-sectional data were analysed using the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model, with one's own and one's partner's cognitive function, functional limitations, depressive symptoms, employment status and contact with friends included as predictors of loneliness.
RESULTS
There were no gender differences in the pattern of associations. Depression was positively associated with loneliness with actor and partner effects being significant. One's partner being employed was associated with less loneliness.
CONCLUSIONS
The sample showed low levels of depression, loneliness, and reduced functionality; however, depression still predicted one's own and one's partner's loneliness. Future work using longitudinal data could examine the role of employment in loneliness, particularly within the context of gender roles.
Topics: Aged; Cross-Sectional Studies; Humans; Interpersonal Relations; Loneliness; Marriage; Middle Aged; Spouses
PubMed: 35564697
DOI: 10.3390/ijerph19095302 -
Reproductive Health Jun 2021Child marriage is a fundamental violation of human rights and a threat to access to education, sexual and reproductive health care, and employment. It also threatens...
Child marriage is a fundamental violation of human rights and a threat to access to education, sexual and reproductive health care, and employment. It also threatens freedom from violence, reproductive rights, movement, and the right to consensual marriage. In most countries in sub-Saharan Africa, the legal age of marriage is 18 years. Hence, girls who marry before 18 years are considered as victims of child marriage. Closely knitted to legal age for marriage is the issue of age for sexual consent, which refers to the minimum age at which a person is considered to have the legal capacity to consent to sexual intercourse. While there seem to be a standard legal age for marriage, the legal age for sexual consent varies in most countries in sub-Saharan Africa and is often lower than the legal age of marriage. In this commentary, we argue that the gap between the legal age of sexual consent and marriage partly accounts for some of the sexual and reproductive health challenges such as intimate partner violence, sexually transmitted infections, adolescent pregnancy, early childbirth, including unsafe abortions among adolescent girls in sub-Saharan Africa and infringements on their sexual and reproductive health rights. This commentary highlights strategic potential interventions that could help address the identified gaps. We argue that aligning the age for sexual consent and marriage is not the solution to the problem. However, what is critical is the education of young people about sexual and reproductive health issues and comprehensive sexuality education through advocacy networks at the national and local levels. Thus, the key is to provide accurate, timely, and non-judgmental sexual and reproductive health and rights information to young people irrespective of the prevailing age of consent. This provision will empower them to make informed decisions about their sexual and reproductive health.
Topics: Adolescent; Africa South of the Sahara; Child; Female; Health Services Accessibility; Human Rights; Humans; Marriage; Pregnancy; Reproductive Health; Sexual Behavior
PubMed: 34154598
DOI: 10.1186/s12978-021-01177-w -
International Journal of Environmental... Dec 2022Child marriage, which the UN's Sustainable Development Goal seeks to eliminate by 2030, represents a violation of the human rights of children. These concerns are driven... (Meta-Analysis)
Meta-Analysis
Disability among Women and Men Who Married in Childhood: Evidence from Cross-Sectional Nationally Representative Surveys Undertaken in 37 Low- and Middle-Income Countries.
Child marriage, which the UN's Sustainable Development Goal seeks to eliminate by 2030, represents a violation of the human rights of children. These concerns are driven by the negative impact of child marriage on the health of children married in childhood and their children. Little is known about the association between child marriage and disability. We sought to estimate the strength of association between disability and child marriage among women and men in middle- and low-income countries (LMICs). Secondary analysis was undertaken of nationally representative samples involving 423,164 women in 37 LMICs and 95,411 men in 28 LMICs. Results were aggregated by random effects meta-analysis and mixed effects multilevel multivariate modelling. The prevalence of disability was significantly greater among women and men who were married in childhood, especially among those married under the age of 16. The strength of these associations varied by age group and age at first marriage. Further research is required to understand the causal pathways responsible for the increased likelihood of disability among women and men married in childhood. National initiatives to eliminate child marriage may need to consider making reasonable accommodations to policies to ensure these are equally effective for women and men with disabilities.
Topics: Male; Child; Humans; Female; Marriage; Developing Countries; Cross-Sectional Studies; Surveys and Questionnaires; Disabled Persons
PubMed: 36612410
DOI: 10.3390/ijerph20010088 -
The Journal of Adolescent Health :... Mar 2022Marriage without meaningful consent persists in India, yet early marriage programs have rarely addressed consent, and research on the practice and its consequences for...
PURPOSE
Marriage without meaningful consent persists in India, yet early marriage programs have rarely addressed consent, and research on the practice and its consequences for married life is limited. This study explores how consent in marriage decisions affects married life, specifically, agency, gender attitudes, spousal communication, contraception, and marital violence outcomes.
METHODS
A subset of 1991 married girls and young women was drawn from a 2018 state-representative survey of adolescents and youth aged 15-21 years in Jharkhand. We compared outcomes between those in self-arranged marriages (n = 392), those in semi-arranged marriages who were acquainted with their husbands before marriage (n = 612), and those in fully parent-arranged marriages with no premarital contact (n = 995). Logistic regression analyses identify associations between marriage decision-making and outcomes of interest, controlling for confounding sociodemographic factors.
RESULTS
Compared with girls whose marriages were self-arranged, those in both fully parent- and semi-arranged marriages were less likely, respectively, to make household decisions (odds ratios [OR], .37 and .60), hold egalitarian gender role attitudes (OR, .48 and .66), uphold girls' rights (OR, .41 and .48), communicate with their husbands (OR, .48 and .64), and practice contraception (OR, .51 and .67). Those in fully family-arranged marriages also had less freedom of movement (OR, .64) and were less likely to express self-efficacy (OR, .64). Marital violence was unrelated to marriage arrangements.
CONCLUSIONS
Self-arranged marriage is associated with more positive outcomes than family-arranged ones, including semi-arranged ones, but marriage arrangements are unrelated with marital violence. Findings reaffirm the need to breakdown prevailing patriarchal norms and promote girls' right to meaningful, "free and full consent".
Topics: Adolescent; Adult; Contraception; Family Characteristics; Female; Humans; India; Informed Consent; Marriage; Young Adult
PubMed: 35184837
DOI: 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2021.07.005